Alabama’s street cannot be solely a mailbox service or a telephone answering service — and the privilege-tax paper is not that job

What Alabama actually requires

Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.31 is the Alabama office-and-agent statute. Each filing entity, and each foreign filing entity registered here, shall designate and continuously maintain in this state a registered agent and a registered office. A general partnership that has put a partnership statement on file with the Secretary of State must do the same. The registered agent is the person on whom process, notice, or demand may be served. The agent may be an individual who lives in this state, or a domestic entity or a foreign entity that is registered to transact business in this state. The agent must keep a business office at the same street as the registered office. The registered office must be a street in this state where process may be personally served on that agent. It need not be a place of business of the company. It may not be solely a mailbox service or a telephone answering service. That is the street rule. We print it. We do not invent a shorter one.

Ala. Code § 10A-5A-2.01 is what the certificate of formation must say. One or more organizers execute that certificate and deliver it for filing. The certificate must set forth the name of the registered agent at the registered office required by Article 5 of Chapter 1. Leaving the agent off is a defect. The same section says a certificate of formation shall be delivered for filing to the Secretary of State. We print that LLC sentence. The live Secretary of State LLC page says the same path: file the original and one copy of the Certificate of Formation with the Secretary of State. It prices that domestic filing at $200.00. A foreign company’s registration is $150.00. You must obtain a Certificate of Name Reservation under Ala. Code § 10A-1-4.02(f) before you file those formation papers. That name reservation is a first paper. It is not the registered-agent job. The same office page tells you to mail a foreign filing to P.O. Box 5616, Montgomery, Alabama 36103, or to 770 Washington Ave., Suite 580, Montgomery, AL 36104. Those contacts are the Secretary of State. They are not a vendor suite.

The Change of Registered Agent or Registered Office by Entity form is the live change paper. Its purpose line cites Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.32. Mail two copies and a self-addressed, stamped envelope. The processing fee on the face is $100.00. The street line says No PO Boxes. The new agent must sign the consent box before filing. The company certifies that the street of the registered office and the street of the registered agent’s business are the same and located in Alabama. The agent must be located in Alabama. Information must be typed or the filing is returned. The Business Downloads page files that same form under Registered Agent and/or Registered Office Changes. We print the statute, the form, and the downloads list. We do not invent a fourth number.

Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.32 is how the company changes the line. The company delivers a statement of the change to the Secretary of State. If the change is the agent, the statement names the new agent and includes that new agent’s written consent, either on the statement or attached to it. When the Secretary of State accepts the statement, the change is effective for a domestic filing company without amending the certificate of formation. Listing a new name on a later tax paper does not do that job. LegalZoom’s Alabama annual-report article says businesses used to be able to update the agent on an annual report, and that that path is gone. The live change is this $100 statement. We print those sentences. We do not invent a yearly Secretary of State paper that can carry the new line.

Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.33 is how the current agent moves. The agent may file a statement that changes the agent’s name, or the street of the registered office, or both. The agent must have given the company written notice of that change at least 10 days before the statement is delivered to the Secretary of State. One statement may cover more than one company if it lists each company’s unique identifying number. That 10-day notice is an agent-move clock. It is not the resignation clock.

Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.34 is how an agent steps down. The agent gives notice to the company at the address the agent most recently knew, and gives notice to the Secretary of State. Notice to the Secretary of State must be given before the 11th day after the date the notice to the company is mailed or delivered. That notice must include the company’s last known address, a statement that written notice of the resignation was given, and the date that notice was given. The appointment ends on the 31st day after the Secretary of State receives the notice. If the notice conforms, the Secretary of State notifies the company and files the resignation. A fee is not required to file that resignation. The live Registered Agent Resignation Notice repeats the office line: must be received within 11 days of notice to the entity. That is an 11-day filing clock and a 31st-day end. It is not Oregon’s 31st-day-only sentence. It is not Wisconsin’s 60-day clock. It is not Missouri’s 30-day clock. ZenBusiness’s Alabama page, last updated March 26, 2026, prints the same 11-day window and the same 31st-day end, and says there is no filing fee. Those three vendor sentences match the statute we retrieved.

Ala. Code § 10A-5A-7.01 is the LLC dissolution list this page will not confuse with a missing agent. A limited liability company is dissolved when the company agreement says so, when all members consent, when there is no remaining member and the statute’s continuation path is not used, or when a court orders a dissolution because it is not reasonably practicable to carry on. That list does not name a missing registered agent. Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.35 is what the office-and-agent chapter does say if the agent is missing. If the company fails to designate and maintain a registered agent, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be served, the company may be served as the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure provide. That is a service path. It is not an automatic LLC dissolution. ZenBusiness’s Alabama page says a company that goes without an agent for 60 or more days, or does not notify the state of a resignation within 60 days, can be administratively dissolved. That is ZenBusiness copy. We print the LLC dissolution list we opened. We do not invent a 60-day LLC clock the list did not print.

The yearly paper many vendor pages still call an annual report is a tax filing. The Alabama Department of Revenue Business Privilege Tax page says every corporation, limited liability entity, and disregarded entity doing business here, or organized, qualified, or registered here, is required to file an Alabama Business Privilege Tax Return. Limited liability entities and disregarded entities file Form PPT, Alabama Business Privilege Tax Return and Annual Report for Pass-Through Entities. C-corporations and other listed entities file Form CPT. The privilege tax remains due every registered year until the company is legally dissolved or withdrawn through the Secretary of State. Form PPT and Form CPT are due on the same date as the matching federal income return. Form BPT-IN, the initial return, must be filed within two and one-half months after the company incorporates, organizes, qualifies, or starts doing business here if the tax calculates to more than one hundred dollars. For taxable year 2026, the Department’s instruction booklet says taxpayers who would be subject to the minimum tax of one hundred dollars do not have a filing requirement. Bizee’s Alabama page, retrieved the same day, says an annual report is not required for Alabama LLCs, and that the Business Privilege Tax return is due by April 15 each year. April 15 is Bizee copy for a calendar-year federal due date. We print the Department page, the instruction booklet, and the vendor sentence. We do not invent a fourth due date that makes them agree. That tax paper lists numbers for the Department of Revenue. It is not a Secretary of State annual report. It cannot change the registered agent.

The Business Entity Search sits at arc-sos.state.al.us. The Business Entity Records page is the office door for that lookup. You can search by entity name, entity number, officer, agent, or incorporator, or by reservation or registration ID. On retrieval, the name-search form said filings completed through September 2, 2026. The same page says the office has switched from a six-digit to a nine-digit Entity ID. You may see three leading zeros added to an older number. ZenBusiness’s Alabama page still tells you to look for a six-digit number to the left of the name. That is vendor copy. We print the live office sentence. The Business Downloads page also publishes a List of Registered Agents. The office says that listing is provided in response to a frequently asked question, and that the Office of the Alabama Secretary of State does not endorse or recommend those registered agents. That list is not an endorsement. It is not a Nevada-style ten-company commercial-agent register. A commercial registered agent here is just a person or company whose Alabama office matches the registered office and that consented to serve.

Paper filings go to the Business Entities Division, P.O. Box 5616, Montgomery, AL 36103-5616, or to 770 Washington Ave., Suite 580, Montgomery, AL 36104. The main office phone is 334-242-7200. The fax is 334-242-4993. ZenBusiness’s Alabama page prints telephone 919-814-5400. That is not the Alabama number on the live Secretary of State pages. We print the vendor line. We do not treat it as Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.31. Those Montgomery hours, if any, are the Secretary of State’s hours. They are not a registered-office clock. Alabama does not post Florida-style 10–noon / 2–4 windows. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as the statute.

Confirm the live agent and street on the Alabama Business Entity Search before you treat a marketing city as current. Headquarters is not the registered office. The Secretary of State’s Montgomery contacts are not a vendor suite. That search lists the registered agent and the registered office of record.

Cited prices, retrieved September 15, 2026

We print what the company’s official registered-agent page said on the retrieval date. No company publishes a different Alabama registered-agent price from the national card, except where we note an Alabama-page sentence. We do not invent a renewal.

• Northwest Registered Agent: official page: “$125 Per Year.” Same price in year two on the national card. Five or more states is $100 a year per state. Retrieved September 15, 2026 from northwestregisteredagent.com/registered-agent and the Alabama product page. First year free only if you form through them; we do not treat that bundle as the standalone price. The Alabama page says the service only costs $125 and always has, with no hidden or surprise fees, and that they will never raise the price. The same page says they provide a commercial registered office location in Dothan, AL. It also sells five free scans of regular business mail a year and extra scans at $15 a document. Those extras are a different product. Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.31 says a mailbox service is not the registered office if that is all the street is. We do not grade those extras as the registered-agent job.
• Bizee: official registered-agent page: free first year with formation; standalone $149/year; year two $149/year. Retrieved September 15, 2026 from bizee.com/business-management/registered-agent. A bizee.com/llc/alabama-registered-agent URL returned 404 the same day. The live Alabama page is bizee.com/llc/alabama/registered-agent. That page names a $200 domestic LLC Certificate of Formation, says an annual report is not required for Alabama LLCs, and says the Business Privilege Tax return is due by April 15 each year. The $200 formation number matches the live Secretary of State LLC page. The April 15 line is Bizee copy. The Department of Revenue page ties Form PPT to the federal due date. The same Bizee page says a P.O. box does not qualify and that the street must be a physical street where documents can be delivered in person during normal business hours. After a free first year with formation, that page says the agent service is $149 a year. Those dollars match the official card. We print those vendor sentences. We do not invent an Alabama-only price from a missing hyphenated URL.
• LegalZoom: official overview retrieved September 15, 2026: “Get registered agent services for $249/year.” Product card: $249/year. Retrieved from legalzoom.com/…/registered-agent-overview.html. The live Alabama article is legalzoom.com/articles/alabama-registered-agent. That article says LegalZoom’s services start at $249/yr and that LegalZoom’s Huntsville office meets all state requirements. No street is published. A legalzoom.com/articles/registered-agent-in-alabama URL returned 404 the same day. The article cites Alabama Code, Section 10A-1-5.31. The same company’s annual-report article says the Secretary of State annual report has been eliminated, and that a change of agent is the $100 Change of Registered Agent or Registered Office by Entity form. We print those vendor sentences. We do not invent a suite or a higher year-two number.
• ZenBusiness: official Alabama page: first-year and renewal dollars are the national card. The national page says $99 + state fees for the first year and renews at $199/yr, subject to change. The Alabama page, last updated March 26, 2026, talks about $100 to a few hundred dollars a year as a market range. That range is not a ZenBusiness price. We keep the national card. A zenbusiness.com/alabama-resident-agent/ URL returned 404 the same day. The live Alabama page is /alabama-registered-agent/. That page says an entity cannot designate itself as its own Alabama registered agent. The statute we retrieved names who may serve. It does not print that extra sentence. We print the vendor sentence. We do not invent a third rule. The same page prices the Change of Registered Agent or Registered Office by Entity form at $100, prints the 11-day resignation window and the 31st-day end, and says there is no resignation fee. Those three lines match the live form and Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.34. The same page also prints a 60-day administrative-dissolution clock. Ala. Code § 10A-5A-7.01 does not print that clock. The national page says they currently do not offer registered-agent service to PLLCs or nonprofits. That is their national exclusion, not an Alabama statute. Retrieved September 15, 2026 from zenbusiness.com/registered-agent and the Alabama registered-agent page.

A change of registered agent or office is a separate Secretary of State filing. An LLC cannot put the new line on a Secretary of State annual report, because an LLC files no such report with that office. The Business Privilege Tax return is a Department of Revenue paper. It is not that change. We cite Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.32, the $100 live form, and the downloads list.

Who publishes an Alabama street

A city is not a registered office. We print only the streets the companies publish for registered-agent use. We do not invent the rest. Confirm the live name and street on the Alabama Business Entity Search before you file. Headquarters is not the registered office. The Secretary of State’s Montgomery contacts are not vendor suites.

• Northwest. The Alabama product page says they provide a commercial registered office location in Dothan, AL. The office-locations page lists Dothan, AL 36 Shelby County, and says they leave the street off this list. No street is published. The two city lines match on Dothan. The office list’s “36 Shelby County” line is vendor copy. We have not been to a Dothan office. Northwest also sells extra mail scans from that location. Those extras are a different product. Alabama’s statute bans a mailbox service as the registered office if that is all the street is.
• Bizee. Claims owned offices in all 50 states. The official registered-agent page names no Alabama street. The live Alabama product page names no Alabama street. The hyphenated Alabama URL we tried returned 404 on September 15, 2026. The contact page lists 17350 State Highway 249, Suite 220, Houston, TX 77064 as headquarters. That address is not an Alabama registered-agent street.
• LegalZoom. The official registered-agent overview does not publish an Alabama street. The live Alabama article names a Huntsville office and no street. The second Alabama article URL we tried returned 404 the same day. We do not invent a suite. We do not treat a LegalZoom virtual-mail street as the registered-agent street.
• ZenBusiness. The Alabama registered-agent page publishes no ZenBusiness street or city. It prints Secretary of State contacts at P.O. Box 5616, Montgomery, Alabama 36103-5616, and a telephone line of 919-814-5400. The P.O. Box is a published mailing line. It is the Secretary of State, not ZenBusiness. The telephone number is not the 334-242-7200 line on the live Secretary of State pages. We do not treat that Montgomery box as their suite.

If you are your own registered agent, the street on the public record is often your home. If you hire a commercial registered agent, the agent line is that organization’s name. Northwest names Dothan on the product page and Dothan, AL 36 Shelby County on the office list, and no street on either. LegalZoom names Huntsville and no street. Bizee publishes no Alabama street. ZenBusiness publishes the Secretary of State’s Montgomery P.O. Box and a telephone number that is not the live Alabama office line. We label every published city vendor-claimed. Use the Business Entity Search.

In-state office, the mailbox-service ban, and the privilege-tax paper

Alabama wants a registered office that is a street in this state where process may be personally served. The agent’s business office and that registered office must be the same street. The office may not be solely a mailbox service or a telephone answering service. The change form will not take a P.O. Box as that street. Change the agent on the Change of Registered Agent or Registered Office by Entity form. The live form prints $100.00. A new agent must consent in writing. Resignation is filed before the 11th day after notice to the company and ends on the 31st day after the Secretary of State receives it. There is no resignation fee. An LLC files no annual report with the Secretary of State. The Business Privilege Tax return is a Department of Revenue paper. That paper’s title also says annual report. It cannot change the agent. Stay without an agent and Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.35 sends service down the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure. Ala. Code § 10A-5A-7.01 does not name that gap as an LLC dissolution event. Alabama does not post a Florida-style 10–noon / 2–4 clock, and it does not run a Nevada-style ten-company commercial-agent register. Northwest claims Dothan, and the office list adds 36 Shelby County. LegalZoom names Huntsville. ZenBusiness publishes P.O. Box 5616 — the Secretary of State. Bizee names no Alabama street. Process Score has not been to those offices. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.31.

Service of process, not marketing mail

We grade scan-and-forward of service of process and official notices:

• Bizee: notifications by text and email; court papers mailed via FedEx with tracking; portal upload by employees. The Alabama page talks about a physical street during normal business hours. That is Bizee copy. Contact-page support hours are Monday–Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST. Those are support hours, not registered-office hours.
• Northwest: “We scan every document you receive right where you receive it—in our office.” The Alabama page adds same-day scans and a Dothan registered office. Their extra mail-scan product is a different product. We do not grade those extras as a mailbox. Alabama’s statute bans a mailbox service as the registered office if that is all the street is.
• LegalZoom: upload, email, and a postcard for urgent legal mail; they say they shred junk mail. The live Alabama article names a Huntsville office. Junk-mail shredding is not the job we score.
• ZenBusiness: scan and upload to a dashboard; email; overnight the original for urgent legal notices. Their own FAQ says you cannot use the agent address as your business address. Their national product currently excludes PLLCs and nonprofits; that is their exclusion, not an Alabama statute. The Alabama page prints Secretary of State contacts at P.O. Box 5616 and telephone 919-814-5400. That box is office copy for the Business Entities Division. The telephone number is not the live Alabama line. Neither line is Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.31.

Home-address privacy

A commercial registered agent is how most Alabama owners keep a home off the agent line. The Secretary of State still publishes whatever other addresses you put on a formation filing. Privacy of the agent line is not privacy of every field. An Alabama LLC must name an agent. It cannot leave that line blank. Confirm the live line on the Business Entity Search.

Scorecards

What this page does not do

• It does not rank mailbox networks or virtual offices.
• It does not publish combined star ratings or a fake 4.8.
• It does not treat a company 9-to-5 line as Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.31.
• It does not treat a Business Privilege Tax return as a Secretary of State annual report. An LLC files no annual report with the Secretary of State.
• It does not treat a Houston headquarters as an Alabama street.
• It does not treat P.O. Box 5616 as a vendor suite. Those contacts are the Secretary of State.
• It does not treat 919-814-5400 as the Alabama Secretary of State phone. The live office line we retrieved is 334-242-7200.
• It does not invent an Alabama-only price a company did not print.
• It does not invent a LegalZoom Alabama street the live Huntsville sentence did not print.
• It does not treat a mailbox service or a telephone answering service as the street.
• It does not invent a ten-company commercial-agent bar. Alabama does not run that register. The List of Registered Agents is not an endorsement.
• It does not pretend an Alabama LLC may skip the agent. Ala. Code § 10A-1-5.31 says the company shall continuously maintain one.
• It does not invent a 60-day LLC dissolution clock. Ala. Code § 10A-5A-7.01 does not name a missing agent.
• It does not invent a winner between the Department of Revenue’s federal-return due date and Bizee’s April 15 line.
• It does not invent a third agent name besides registered agent.
• It does not treat Department of Revenue taxes as the registered-agent job.
• It does not treat Northwest’s extra mail-scan product as the registered-agent job.

Choosing among being the agent yourself, asking a lawyer, or hiring a commercial agent: DIY vs lawyer vs commercial. California’s scorecard is a different statute: California scorecard. Texas keeps the written consent with the company: Texas scorecard. Florida files the acceptance and posts a 10–noon / 2–4 clock: Florida scorecard. Delaware bans a virtual-only agent and sets the commercial bar above 50: Delaware scorecard. New York starts with the Secretary of State already on the agent line: New York scorecard. Nevada makes a commercial agent register at ten companies: Nevada scorecard. Wyoming bans UPS stores and virtual addresses as the registered office: Wyoming scorecard. Arizona makes the statutory-agent appointment wait on a signed acceptance: Arizona scorecard. Illinois gives you 60 days after your agent resigns, then you are not in good standing: Illinois scorecard. Ohio cancels the articles if you miss the 30-day statutory-agent notice: Ohio scorecard. Georgia wants the registered office at the same street as the agent: Georgia scorecard. Pennsylvania files a registered office, not a registered agent: Pennsylvania scorecard. New Jersey wants a street for your registered agent and will not take a P.O. Box alone: New Jersey scorecard. Colorado will not take a commercial mailbox or a P.O. Box as the registered-agent street: Colorado scorecard. North Carolina’s LLC annual report is $200 paper or $203 online by April 15. That filing is not the registered-agent job: North Carolina scorecard. Virginia’s LLC pays a $50 annual registration fee and files no annual report: Virginia scorecard. Washington files the agent’s prior consent and will not take a P.O. Box or a PMB as the street: Washington scorecard. Michigan’s statute names a resident agent and sends the filing to LARA: Michigan scorecard. Indiana’s live statute names a registered agent. Older Indiana law called the same job resident agent: Indiana scorecard. Massachusetts’s LLC statute names a resident agent. The $500 annual report cannot change that line: Massachusetts scorecard. Maryland’s statute names a resident agent and sends the filing to SDAT, not the Secretary of State: Maryland scorecard. Tennessee wants a registered office and a registered agent at the same street. The $300 LLC annual report is not that job: Tennessee scorecard. Minnesota wants a registered office. A Minnesota-formed company may name an agent. The free December 31 renewal is not that job: Minnesota scorecard. Wisconsin files the agent at DFI, not the Secretary of State. A P.O. Box, a mailbox service, or a telephone answering service is not the office: Wisconsin scorecard. Oregon’s street cannot be a commercial mail receiving agency, a mail-forwarding shop, or a virtual office. The $100 anniversary renewal is not the registered-agent job: Oregon scorecard. Missouri LLCs file no annual report with the Secretary of State. They still must keep a registered office and a registered agent: Missouri scorecard.